Meaning - Sonnet 3

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou vewest,

Now is the time that face should forme an other,

Whose fresh repaire if thou not renewst,

Thou doo'st beguile the world, unblesse some mother.

Rather than guide his Narcissus’ face away from the water, he demands the youth marvel at his glorious reflection. “Look at your beautiful face in the mirror and say to yourself that it is time to admit that your glory must be multiplied.” You are now in "fresh repair," or in perfect condition, but if you do not choose to renew yourself, you will "beguile" or "cheat" the world, and the woman who would bear your children. In the first two sonnets, it has been established that this man would be depriving the world if he has no children, and for a brief moment the considerations of the woman are brought into it. If he chooses to be chaste, he will “unblesse some mother.” Unbless is an interesting choice of words. Fate has already "blessed" her with his child and should he continue his stubbornness, he will rob her of that destiny. Not only is he hoarding all his worth while the rest of the world starves, but he is tampering with God’s plan. The point is not to mess with the plan.

For where is she so faire whose un-eard wombe

Distaines the tillage of thy husbandry?

Then Shakespeare goes on a strange tangent; the youth doesn't know that he can have any woman. Does he say to choose wisely someone who would match his beauty, or someone talented so the child might, with a good match, succeed his father? No. It’s, “What pretty virgin would refuse your talents in lovemaking?” "Where is she so fair whose uneared womb/ Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?" What lady will reject you? This line is pretty magical in its overt sexual implications. The act of sex is has become the act of farming. The woman's womb is now an untilled field, waiting be “plowed” by a professional. Ploughing is a metaphor for sex. She is a virgin field and he has the abilities of a professional farmer, for “husbandry” implies a profession. Consider the meadow metaphor in Sonnet 2: "digge deep trenches in thy beauty's field" (2,2). There, digging and ploughing desecrate a beautiful surface. In sonnet 3, a woman's "uneared" womb is will not refuse a good “tilling.” Take any girl you like, none will refuse your shovel. “Digge deep” in them, and plant your seed for growing. That the sonnets might have been commissioned to encourage the young man to marry a specific granddaughter of some high ranking person seems unlikely to me, when women are treated thus in the poetry.

Or who is he so fond will be the tomb

Of his self-love to stop posterity?

Who is he that is so foolish with loving of himself, that he will die to stop the conception of his descendants? This part of the text perhaps alludes to the Biblical of Onan whose father commanded him to have sexual intercourse with his deceased brother's wife, Tamar, so to produce an heir. Onan complied, and did have sex with Tamar, but before he ejaculated inside her, he “pulled out” (as we say in modern vernacular) and to be more crude, “finished himself off,” rather masturbated himself to fruition.

"But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight; so he put him to death" (Gen. 38.9-10).

I guess we found the guy who would be so foolish as to die rather than produce heirs.

"Death of Onan" Frank Lanjšček

Thou art thy mother's glasse and she in thee

Calls back the lovely Aprill of her prime,

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Dispight of wrinkles this thy golden time.

Your mother gave you beauty that the world might see her youth in you. You should do the same, so that when you are old, you can remember the wrinkle-free days of your youth. This is the relentless repetition, that warns the youth to beware the perils of his impending old age.

But if thou live remembred not to be,

Die single and thine Image dies with thee.

The attitude is a little harsh here, a little passive aggressive, almost daring: "Fine. Be that way. If you decided to live with no vision or memory of your wonderful youth that is so valuable, fine. Die single then, fool, and no one will remember you."